First part of our trip back to England

So we got on our airplane on time on Saturday night.  We went through pain to get seats together, and on a direct flight.  I am grateful to Paul's department assistance for putting her foot down, and basically doing the right thing.  We were so displeased with how the travel company expected us to travel.  I will name and shame them once our time here is done.

Anywho I digress.  Saturday afternoon at Charlotte airport really is quiet!!!! No queues and through security in no time.  Defineatley the time to travel with small children.  The flight was slightly delayed, but still arrived at Heathrow on time.  Terminal 3 is awesome, and also not too far from the car hire place.

We got our hire car, a Citroen C4 very quickly, again the joy of it being first thing on a Sunday morning.  We headed up the motorway to Paul's parents.  First thing I did was go to sleep.  Paul and I spent most of the day drifting in and out of sleep.  We put Isaac and Seb to bed at about 5.30.  No one slept for more than 3 hours on the plane, so they all needed it.  Oliver fell asleep on the sofa about 6.15 and was put straight to bed.  Typically Paul and I were up till about 11 talking to Keith, Paul's dad.  

No one was up before 9 the next morning.  Oliver even slept till gone 10.  The boys were certainly trying to catch up.  We had a rough plan for the day, but first an emergency stop.  Everyone said the weather in England was lovely before we got there.  If was chucking down on the Monday.  So we stopped to get some rain coats, and look for 3 pairs of black shoes for small children.  I got one....

No trip to Oxford would be complete without a trip to Grandads bike shop.  Last Easter there was a fire that destroyed most of the building and stock inside.  The shop recently reopen in the same location.  We couldn't have picked the worst week to be in Oxford.  It was threshers week, and anyone who know Oxford would know how many bikes there are on the street.  A big proportion of these come from grandads bike shop.  The boys have always loved going there, and having a little ride around.

From there we headed to the science area of the university, where the museums are. It was already after lunch, so we had a snack on the way.  Oxford wasn't too busy at this point, and we were able to get parked within walking distance of the museums (once we had got change for parking of course).  

We started at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.  Despite Paul living in Oxford most of his life, he had never been to the museums.  

                                       

The museum is perfect for small kids.  Not too much going on, but the right level of info and interesting stuff to hold them.

There were rocks, dinosaur bones, various skeletons, taxidermy animals, the evolution of man..... I could go on.  Have some photos instead.

Had to geta photo of this one, Wicked Tuna all the way!!!

Isaacs absolute favorite.

                                 

After killing a good 45 minutes to an hour, we ducked into the Pitt Rivers Museum, attached to the back of the Natural History Museum.  This collection is epic....

It is basically a collection of artifacts to do with humans.  There is all sorts; weapons, worship, craft, jewelry, clothing, pottery.  I could go on.  We dragged the children around all 3 levels. And when I say dragged, I really do mean that.  The lack of lunch was starting to show, and although Pitt Rivers is a good museum, it is definetley more suited to adults / school trips.  But somewhere to go if you have some time to kill in Oxford, like we did.  Best thing, the museums were free.

We both really enjoyed the museum, and the kids seemed to get a lot out of them too.  We took a short walk for out planned late lunch / early dinner.

Brown's on the Woodstock road has been a firm favorite with the Goslings for many years.  At 2.30 on a Monday afternoon, it is also empty, and the fact you have 3 small, starving boys doesn't seem to bother anyone.  We were seated promptly and served by an awesome waitress, who was obviously used to dealing with kids.  Plus we were within seeing distance of the toilets, meaning we could let the older 2 go, without us having to go to.  Bonus.  Paul and I had a Perroni each, yum, and the boys had diet cokes, which they mullered as soon as they arrived. The menu is a good, a little pretentious maybe.  I went with steak frites, while Paul decided on the wild boar and chorizo burger (pretentious, right?).  Oliver also went with a burger, and we decided on grilled chicken with fries and an extra side of fries for Isaac and Seb to share.  The food came relatively quickly (there was only about 2 toilet trips in the time), and it was delicious.  Really tasty, just want we all needed.  Admittedly my steak was a little under cooked, but I don't mind it like that. Paul's burger was meaty and flavor some, as was Oliver's.  The other 2 barely touched their chicken, but polished off all the fries available.  We decided not to get a dessert.  We had a good meal, at a fairly reasonable price in quite an upmarket establishment without the kids being a nightmare.  Success! 

We spent Monday night at the Goslings before heading to see my dad briefly, with a quick stop for more shoes.  Success was had at Tesco at the Meadows for Isaac.  I love this Tesco.  It has one of the best clothing ranges, and I always like to take a little look when I am in the area.  I had to go to the Marks and Spencer for Seb.  I don't miss those prices.

We headed to see Lee and Melissa (his daughter) for dinner, bringing with us a curry from Tesco.  I miss those easy meals, stick 'em in the oven and off we go.  It was nice to see them, and so good for Lee to spend time with the kids.  I think he needed it.  

We went back to my dads to spend the night, hoping for another good sleep from the boys.

 

NASCAR Hall of Fame

Last Saturday we embarked on a trip to Charlotte, NC.  We had promised Oliver a trip to the NASCAR Hall of Fame as part of his birthday celebration.

We arrived fairly early, and queued to get tickets.  The queue was not long at all.

We decided on general admissions tickets, though they do lots of different packages that include things such as food, drink, audio tours and simulator rides.  The tickets are like little credit cards.

Once inside, you are ushered towards the Belk High Octane theater.  While waiting for the next showing, we registered out tickets, so we could use them at various other places around the building.  We were shown a movie on the history of NASCAR.  It was very interesting, though we knew quite a lot of it already.  After the film, you walk out into the great hall.  This contains different NASCAR's from the ages, starting with the Hudson Hornet in the 1950's, all the way to the modern era.  They are displayed on Glory Road.This is a replica of a track, with different degrees of banking.  At places, you can walk up the banking to see how steep it is.  They also have info on all the NASCAR tracks, and the different surfaces.  Very interesting (even to me!) 

The Steep Banking 

From there, you walk up the ramp to the Hall of Honor.  This is where NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees are honored.  It contains various cars and memorabilia from the inductees, and information on them all.  Again very interesting 

Pete Hamiltons famous Plymouth Superbird

Then it is on to the Race Week part of the building.  Here you get to see the goings on of a race team in the week leading up to a race.  There is a kids area, and lots of interesting things for adults to do.  This area is very hands on, and we were glad we went early, so it was no too busy.  We even got to walk through a big truck that transports the cars around, very cool. 

Daddy and Isaac working a pit stop

The bigger boys even got to have a go on an iRacing game, and set qualifying laps.  They loved it!  This is also where the race simulators were.  I thought that this would not be suitable for the boys, I thought they would be too little, but they may have been alright.  Plus you have to pay extra.  They are the iRacing games, inside actual size NASCAR's.  I kinda wish we had a go now, but hey ho! 

The simulator cars

From there we headed to the top floor, which contained Heritage Speedway, an area with individual exhibits about the history of NASCAR.  For people new to the sport, this was fascinating.  We then headed down in the elevator to the Great Hall, where we had missed the exhibit in the middle.  This was to do with women in the sport of NASCAR.  Again, fascinating.  The boys loved seeing Danica's car 

Danica Patrick's car

We really enjoyed the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  As a family who are just starting to get enthused about the sport, it was a great eye opener, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  The staff were friendly, polite and courteous.  It is well managed and maintained, with a lot of modern touches.  I would quite like to go back again in about 20 years time, when the current drivers are the inductees!  

We don't normally buy photo packages or spend a lot of time in the gift shops of places we visit, but this time we decided to buy the photos the staff had taken as we walked in.  It was well worth it.  

Cheese!!!

Cars and Halloween

I have Oliver home from school today.  It is conference day, so no school.  They have put on a skate party in its place, but Oliver didn't want to go.....

On Saturday we went to Charlotte.  There was a hot rod car show on at the raceway.  Wow, what an amazing place.  I have been to Silverstone before, but never a Nascar track.  Talk about a steep bank.  All the cars were in the middle of the track, it was great fun walking some of the track, so steep!!!!  The cars were awesome, so many.  After a while they did just all blend into one... We met our friends there and had lunch together, the kids ran around a bit, before we went our separate way to look at yet more cars.  I have done car shows in the UK, but this felt different.  An enjoyable way to spend the day though.... We stopped at Ikea on the way back, picked up more bits and pieces fro our house, mainly Oliver's room.  It still feels quite empty though....

Sunday was more of a relaxing day.  I was very tired, and ended up having a sleep on the sofa while Paul built furniture.  Then we headed to the mall for some lunch, and a bit of retail therapy for me.  From there we went to Toys R Us.  Isaac has been invited to a birthday party this weekend, so we needed to get a present.  We are very good at going in this shop and not buying anything for our children.  We did scope out what Isaac wants for his birthday though.  I will be making a few trips back there in the coming weeks....

Monday was a normal day,  Tuesday Oliver had his halloween parade at school (they did it on tuesday, as they have chapel on a wednesday morning, and i don't think they wanted ghoulish dressed up kids in chapel).  We had bought him a Darth Vader costume, but it was too big, so he went as a pirate.  We met up with our friend Donna in a park in Greenville.  I am having great fun scoping out all these parks, and getting to know new people.

Yesterday was Halloween.  There is an unwritten rule on this road that kids are only allowed to knock if you have your porch light on.  We had a big bowl of sweets, and turned our light on after Isaac and Seb had gone to bed.  Oliver put his Darth Vader costume on and we answered the door many times.  Some of the kids were quite rude.  I reckon out of about 30 that knocked, only about 7 said thank you, and 6 of them had an adult that came to the door.  Next year, I think we will just put a bowl of sweets on the porch with a note, and take the boys out ourselves.

Looks like people have moved into our old house, so hopefully we might get some deposit back soon.  My car is going on ebay this weekend, so if you want a polo with less than 50,000 miles on the clock look it up.  It is a great little car.

We have got some friends coming round this afternoon.  Really looking forward to it.